ACT ref sides with Farah

David Polkinghorne

If it makes you feel any better Blues fans, Canberra's referees' boss David Adams agrees with you - video referee Sean Hampstead made the ''wrong call'' by awarding Greg Inglis's controversial try in Wednesday night's State of Origin opener.

But he added it was a decision where ''referees can't win''.

The Canberra District Rugby League Referees' Association chairman said the point of contention was whether NSW hooker Robbie Farah had played at the ball with his leg as Inglis went to score.

If he did, then it was play on and a try to the Queensland centre. Otherwise, Inglis lost the ball in the tackle and no try should have been the call.

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''I believe that it was probably the wrong call based mainly on the fact the reasoning the on-field officials and video referee gave was that they believed that Farah had played at the ball with his foot, but in my opinion that's probably in dispute,'' he told The Canberra Times yesterday.

''He certainly led with his foot but at the end of the day … I don't think you can prove one way or the other whether he played at the ball or it just happened that Inglis lost the ball onto his leg or foot, which in my opinion is a knock on in goal so you go out for a 20-metre restart.''

While Adams thought the referees had botched that decision, he agreed with the game's other contentious call - the sin-binning of Blues centre Michael Jennings after he ran in to throw a haymaker at Brent Tate.

''That was the correct call. He's run in there and got involved where he didn't need to and I think the referees did the right thing there by binning him, but it was a big call that final one,'' Adams said.